New Techniques of Combatting Racial and Religious Prejudice Discussed at Conference

January 28, 1946

New York (Jan. 27)

Persons who feel least secure in their surrounding have the greatest amount of racial and religious prejudice, while the least amount of prejudice toward any group is to be found among persons having the most contact with it, Dr. Gordon W. Allport, chairman of the psychology department at Harvard University, stated today at a meeting here of sixty leaders in education, welfares, business and other fields under the auspices of the Commission of Community Interrelations of the American Jewish Congress.

Dr. Allport said that his findings were based on a survey made among 437 students attending Harvard, Dartmouth College and Radcliffe, The survey, he said, also disclosed that prejudice and dislike acquired during the ages between two and eleven and those acquired after seventeen are strongest. He urged, therefore, that care be taken to secure unprejudiced teachers, especially in the elementary grades.

Other techniques of ascertaining the bases for prejudice and means for combatting it were discussed by the scholars and laymen attending the conference, which was held at the Waldorf Asterial Hotel. Henry Epstein, former Solicitor General of New York State and chairman of the Commission’s national advisory board, emphasized that a plan of action will be formulated to “meet group tensions within communities.”